Romaniello, Matthew P. (2007) Mission Delayed: The Russian Orthodox Church after the Conquest of Kazan’. Church History, 76 (3). pp. 511-540.
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Muscovite Russia initiated an era of empire-building with the conquest of the Khanate of Kazan’ in 1552, creating new challenges for the Russian Orthodox Church with the addition of Muslim, Turkic Tatars and Chuvashes, and animistic, Finno-Ugric Maris, Mordvins, and Udmurts. The traditional historiography has presented the conquest as an Orthodox crusade against non-believers. However, the early years of the Orthodox Church in the region reveals a different history, in which the Church was driven by two different initiatives and neither was conversion. Secular economic support enabled the new churches, monasteries, and convents to secure Muscovite control over the region, whether it be from assisting the physical defense of the territory or by developing the region’s resources. At the same time, the Church began a dedicated effort to create a spiritual, Orthodox aura among the tsar’s new lands and peoples. Combined, these initiatives succeeded in making the Russian Orthodox Church integral to Muscovite political centralization over its expanding frontiers, paralleling the contemporary developments of confessionalization in Western Europe. While the conversion of the tsar’s new subjects was not the primary goal of the Church, its overall success along Muscovy’s frontier ultimately positioned its members to pursue the conversion of the local population once its earlier initiatives had succeeded.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | conquest, colonization, religious struggle, forced conversion |
| Subjects: | A Church/mission history B Mission theology/theory > Conversion B Mission theology/theory > Persecution B Mission theology/theory > Contextualization/Inculturation F Interreligious Dialogue and Witness G Christian traditions/Denominations > Eastern Orthodox |
| Divisions: | Former Soviet Union > Russian Federation |
| Depositing User: | Katharina Penner |
| Date Deposited: | 22 Feb 2023 05:39 |
| Last Modified: | 22 Feb 2023 05:39 |
| URI: | https://ceeamsprints.osims.org/id/eprint/2805 |
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